


Oh my gosh they were roommates

by ExplainingTheIndescribable



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Idiots in Love, Lena is Irish, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:56:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 17,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26804002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExplainingTheIndescribable/pseuds/ExplainingTheIndescribable
Summary: Kara and Lena attend the same university, except Lena wasn't planning on sticking around - until she meets Kara. They wind up living together and shenanigans ensue, until someone unexpected shows up. Lena then discovers she's really good at jumping to the wrong conclusion, especially when it concerns someone she loves. College roommate AU.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 16
Kudos: 291
Collections: Supercorp Big Bang 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lesbionest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lesbionest/gifts).



> Huge shout out to the wonderful [Lesbionest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lesbionest/pseuds/Lesbionest) for her [stunning artwork](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26796433), and to the lovely Chloe7076 for beta-ing my sleep-deprived words.

Kara was taking the scenic route to the café for lunch through one of the arts buildings, holding the folders and books from her favourite class loosely to her chest. She was happily lost in thoughts of writing her revision notes up in coloured gel pens when she caught sight of her ex coming through a door at the other end of the corridor.

She ducked quickly into the nearest side passage, positive she hadn't been seen and thanking Rao she was free and clear of that awkward situation – a notion which changed a moment later, when she heard an unfortunately familiar voice shout her name, followed by hurried footsteps. Acting more on impulse than logic, she darted down the hallway and into the first room she happened across, closing the door quickly and quietly behind her. As soon as her eyes found the light switch on the wall by the door, she flicked it off. That ought to deter anyone from looking in here- but before Kara could finish her train of thought, it was interrupted.

“Uh, hi?”

It was at that moment, Kara actually registered that she was in one of the music practise rooms. And that she was not alone.

She spun around towards the voice, automatically plastering a smile on her face, even though it couldn’t have been seen in the dark, by the stranger whose room and practise she had just invaded. The awkward flush rising on her cheeks distracted her from the stranger's accent, that she couldn’t quite place, but it definitely wasn’t any kind of American.

“Oh gosh, hi, I’m so sorry to interrupt, I would never usually uh-.” She glanced to the floor by the door, but there was no tell-tale flicker of a shadow in the thin strip of light at the bottom of it. “I’m sort of hiding from someone," Kara pushed her glasses up a little, "and I didn’t realise this room was occupied or I wouldn’t have come in here." She paused and gestured awkwardly. "Or turned the lights off. I’ll fix that, hang on.”

She took a step towards the light switch, but stumbled, almost tripping over a cymbal but somehow managing both to catch herself and hit her leg on something very solid at the same time; she hoped she hadn't dented it.

The other person winced audibly at the thump.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, thanks, it’s just uh- a bruise…" Kara then realised that although a human could have been bruised by this, they also wouldn't have been able to see it in the darkness still around them. "Uh, probably. It's hard to tell… You know, with the dark." She gestured towards the light fixture in the ceiling, as though the other person could see it. _Pull it together Danvers! "_ But it's fine."

Apparently, someone just needed to have a cute accent and be concerned about her, for Kara to forget how to function.

There was silence for a moment.

“Don’t worry about interrupting by the way, I’ve been there.”

“Did you also trip and hit a table?” She tried to make it sound joke-y. And at least, she thought it was a table.

She heard a faint snort of amusement, “no, I didn’t. But I did spill coffee on my shirt in front of them, so… I sort of know what you’re going through.”

“Running into an ex is the worst.” There was a hum of agreement. “I’m Kara by the way”

“I’m Lena.”

There was a moment of quiet, in which Kara realised both that Lena's accent was Irish, and that her x-ray vision wasn’t going to work through the metal door. She tried in vain to hear if there was anyone in the corridor outside; it was silent for a minute, until Lena spoke again.

“Do you think they’re gone?”

Kara nodded, then realised that would not be visible to Lena and spoke, “sorry, I was- uh, yes, I think he’s gone. I should probably let you get back to practising.”

Kara knelt down to feel her way forward for any other obstacles hidden in the dark on her way to the light switch, when all of a sudden, a light blinked on. Lena had turned on the torch on her phone – just in time to see Kara, with her glasses slightly askew, folders clutched in one hand, and the other stretched out in front of her feeling the floor.

Kara felt the heat rise in her cheeks again; she sure was making a hell of a first impression. This thought faded rapidly, as did every other thought in her head, at the sight of Lena, perched on a piano bench with a smile and one eyebrow raised.

"You good?" Lena made as if to rise and help Kara, but Kara straightened up before she could.

"Dandy." As soon as the word left her mouth, Kara groaned internally; was that even Irish slang? Alex was going to die of laughter when she told her about this later. Before Kara could turn away, Lena spoke again.

“You know, I’ve been meaning to check out these practise rooms since I got here at the start of the year, but never seemed to get around to it until today. I have to say, it was much more interesting than I was expecting.”

“Sorry about that. I’ll totally get you lunch or something, to make it up to you.”

“Oh, you don’t need to do that, I’m happy to help. I only hope karma remembers this the next time I see someone I want to avoid.” Lena’s joking tone did not go unnoticed, but for some reason Kara wasn’t in a rush to end the conversation or to leave.

“If you don’t want to that’s fine, I totally respect that, but it’s no trouble really. I do kinda owe you.”

“You don’t owe me anything." Lena hesitated, then gave a dazzling smile for a moment and totally out of the blue, Kara’s knees went weak. "But sure, I'll go to lunch with you.”

“I was uh- actually headed to lunch now, if you wanted to join me?”

Lena bit her bottom lip; which Kara was absolutely not staring at.

“I can’t right now, I’ve only got the room booked for a little while and they squeezed me into the schedule as a favour.”

Kara nodded, then lit up with an idea. “I could bring lunch to you?” She looked around the room, “you can eat in here, right?”

Lena shrugged with a hint of a wicked smile, “what they don’t know, won’t hurt them…”

Kara nodded with a grin, before taking a piece of paper from her notebook and writing down her number.

“Text me what you’d like? You could tell me now, but I might forget it.”

“Isn’t the shop in the building next door?”

“Yep. It’s a very long way with a lot of distractions en-route.”

Lena laughed at Kara’s feigned sincerity.

“I see, that’s quite a recipe for disaster.”

“Exactly.”

Kara smiled, and almost tripped again as she tried to leave the room without looking where she was going; she was a little preoccupied looking at Lena and the smile still playing on her lips; which she still was _not_ staring at.

She closed the practise room door behind her, but didn’t manage to reach the end of the hallway before her phone buzzed with an incoming message.

Kara tapped to open it with a grin, it was from Lena.

~~~~

_Earlier that day_

“Thank you, for meeting with me at such short notice.”

The Dean smiled politely, “of course, Miss Luthor.”

Lena was used to people saying her surname that way. It was subtle, and easy to miss if you didn’t know what to look for, but it meant they knew who the Luthors were – or rather, what they were; powerful, well-connected, and not the sort of person you’d want as an enemy. The family name was less infamous in America, but known enough to get her a next day appointment with the Dean of the university, apparently.

They exchanged pleasantries briefly, before Lena segued smoothly into the reason for her being there, “on that note, I understand you are the person to speak with regarding a request for a transfer.”

The Dean seemed to consider this, with elbows on the desk and her hands steepled, she looked at Lena.

“Yes, that is correct. My secretary has informed me of your situation and I'm sure you're aware we do not arrange transfers lightly once term has begun, especially those on an international scale.”

That was a familiar tone too; the one of somebody who wanted their favour to be bought. Lena sighed internally; she hated this world for a lot of reasons. It was all too dull and predictable – which was useful at times like this when it would get her what she wanted, but there wasn't ever any challenge in it.

Lena kept a measured tone in her response.

“Perhaps I could show my appreciation for your efforts with a donation to the university?”

“As much as I, and the university, appreciate your support," that was even easier than she was expecting it to be, "I am curious as to why a student would travel so far only to return one month into the academic year.”

Lena made no move to answer the indirect question.

After a couple of minutes of stretching silence, the Dean reached for a blank piece of paper and started writing on it. “Very well, I understand your university of choice in Ireland are also aware of your request, and they have agreed in principal?” Lena gave a curt nod. “Then I shall begin the formal paperwork. With any luck you will be able to transfer at the end of the semester, for an easier transition.”

Lena smiled courteously, and gave an internal sigh of relief. As much as she knew the Dean's type and what they wanted, it would have been very easy, and very inconvenient, for them to say no. As much as Lena didn’t want to be here anymore, she also didn’t want to have to start from the beginning again at her next institution and have the past weeks be nothing but wasted time. At least this way, some good would come of it.

She left the office feeling lighter than she had since her first day, and decided to get around to looking into booking one of the music practise rooms for a few hours.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a little over two weeks since the incident where she’d met Lena in the music room, though it didn’t feel as long. They’d kept texting since, and recently Kara had spent a lot of time smiling at her phone recently. She was trying to figure out how to casually mention meeting up for lunch again, when out of nowhere someone crashed into her and caught her off-guard. Although it didn't really affect the girl of steel, in her surprise somehow her phone got knocked from her hand. She went to pick it up, but someone had beaten her to it.

Lena held it out to her with a look of concern written across her features, “are you alright?”

Kara took it with a smile so wide it hurt, “yeah. Yeah, no, I’m fine. Thank you.”

She rose at the same time as Lena and was about to turn to the jerk who thought skateboarding indoors and crashing into people was a good idea and correct him, but Lena had beaten her to it. She had placed herself between Kara and the guy and was glaring at him as he picked up himself and his board. He looked like he'd been about to ignore them and leave when he got caught in Lena’s piercing glare. Despite being easily a foot taller than her, he looked about as imposing as a baby capybara. He gulped.

“Sorry bro,” he muttered without looking her in the eye, before shifting his board to his other hand and slouching away.

Lena was about to go after him, not really thinking about what exactly she’d do if she caught him, but more focused on the fact that he’d crashed into Kara at full speed and a reluctant, half-hearted ‘sorry’ wasn’t really sufficient. But Kara spoke and it distracted Lena just long enough for the guy to drift out of sight in the throng of people leaving a nearby lecture hall.

“I was about to go and get lunch, fancy joining me?”

How Kara always managed to embody a literal ray of sunshine, whether it was 7:30am on a Monday or at a reasonable time on any other day of the week, Lena didn't know. But secretly, she found it was incredibly endearing.

Lena scanned the crowd once more, but to no avail.

“Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea. But are you sure you’re alright?” She looked over Kara as though expecting her to suddenly crumple like tissue paper from hidden wounds. "We can swing by the doctor?"

“I’m sure, he didn’t hit me that hard and besides,” Kara gave her a confident grin, “I’m stronger than I look, you know.”

Kara normally would have pretended to be more injured than she actually was around humans who didn’t know she was Kryptonian, just so they wouldn’t get suspicious of her not being injured by… well, anything. But Lena had looked so concerned for her wellbeing, with a little crinkle in her forehead, that Kara figured it was best not to fake an injury and worry her unnecessarily. It had nothing to do with her wanting to show off in front of Lena; nothing at all. 

~~~~

It was while they were at lunch, that Lena mentioned living off campus, much to Kara’s surprise.

“I’m staying at the hotel in town.” Kara looked at her, even more confused. “Coming here was a bit of a last-minute decision, I didn’t really have time to sort out permanent accommodation. And since then, with classes starting… it’s not really been much of a priority.” Lena shrugged.

Before she could mention anything about how she wasn't sticking around for much longer anyway, Kara burst out, “you could live with me!” Lena looked at Kara startled, to see her beaming brightly back. “Only if you want to, of course. My roommate’s moving out tomorrow, I don’t know why exactly, she doesn’t really talk much… But the point is that she’s leaving, and you could totally share my dorm.” Kara looked so excited at the prospect Lena wasn’t quite sure what to say. She blinked. In the moment of silence, Kara realised she may have overstepped by inviting a relative stranger, albeit a very intelligent, charming, and absolutely stunning stranger, to live with her. “I mean, it’s not as fancy as a hotel, and you don’t have to, and even if you wanted to of course you’re welcome to come and do a tour first…” 

Lena was still silent and looking like a deer in headlights. But before Kara could get too discouraged, or she could think twice about it, she spoke. “I would like that. To do a tour I mean, if that’s okay.” At this point, what did she have to lose?

Kara nodded, grinning at Lena like she’d personally won the Superbowl, “totally. You’ve gotta see what you’re getting yourself into.” Kara was about to invite her around at that very moment, when she suddenly realised, she should probably tidy up first. She hadn’t exactly been expecting company in the near future and her room reflected that a little; this time she was determined that at least her dorm would make a good first impression. “Do you want to come by later?”

“Sure, I’ll let you know when my last class finishes?”

“Perfect.”


	3. Chapter 3

It was their first night living together. Kara couldn’t believe it had only been a few days since Lena had come around to see the dorm they now shared. Kara looked over at Lena and was about to say as much, but something about the way Lena was sitting curled up on her bed looking a little too lost in thought, stopped her.

“Are you okay?”

Lena gave her a weak smile, “I just miss home.” For all the grief and drama her family created in her life, the familiarity was difficult not to miss. For a moment, she felt like this had been a mistake. As much as she liked Kara – which was more than she'd thought she could like anyone in such a short space of time, tonight the thought kept creeping to the front of her mind that there wasn't much point getting closer to someone she was just going to leave behind in a few months. 

“I get that.” She looked at Lena, “well, I know how much I miss home and it’s only a couple hours' drive. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be living on another continent.”

There was silence for a moment, before Lena spoke.

“What's your home like?”

“It’s mostly… countryside-y. There are a lot of fields, which are great for hide and seek, and no one’s really around for miles, except the odd person who gets lost. But mostly, it’s just quiet.”

Lena had been studying Kara a little as she spoke, but when Kara turned to her with a smile and met her gaze, Lena quickly looked away.

“That sounds nice.”

“Yeah, it is, most of the time…”

Kara trailed off; she’d had an idea.

“Hey, come with me.”

She held her hand out to Lena. Lena hesitated, but with one look up at Kara, she took it.

Kara led her quietly along the corridors winding through the building, until they reached a discreet door, leading to a stairwell. To her surprise, though she wasn’t sure exactly what to expect at this point, Kara started walking up the stairs.

A lot more flights of stairs later, they reached a door. Kara turned to Lena, who was subtly trying to catch her breath, and smiled. Then she pushed open the door and took Lena out onto the roof.

Once they were both outside, Kara let go of her hand. Lena missed the warmth almost immediately.

~~~~

"Homesick?"

Lena gave a slight nod, not feeling as defensive as she usually would have. 

A thought seemed to occur to Kara, and Lena watched her as she rose and took her keys from one of the hooks on the back of their door.

Kara turned to Lena, "come on." She gestured towards the now open door with a goofy grin on her lips and Lena was halfway to her before she hesitated.

"Where to?"

"You'll see."

The corridors were all quiet as they crept along, the lights flickering on overhead one by one as they passed the motion sensors dotted down the hallway. No one else seemed to be up at this time of night, and their footsteps sounded eerily loud on the scuffed wooden floor. Neither of them spoke until they reached a blue metal door, which looked like it had seen better days.

Kara took something from her pocket and stood in front of the lock; a moment later the door clicked open.

"You know, if this is when you tell me you're secretly a kidnapper…"

Kara chuckled. "Oh yeah, that was the whole reason I invited you to move in with me. To make it easier to kidnap you. What did you really think happened to my last roommate?" Kara looked at Lena, trying to sound mysterious.

Lena had to bite her lip to keep from directly asking why Kara had really asked her to move in; she wasn't used to anyone being playful like this and she didn't want to ruin it. Kara's gaze darted to her lips for a moment, but a moment later she was pushing the stubborn door open, despite it's hinges creaking noisily in protest.

"Obviously my first thought was that they'd run away."

"Are you saying I scared them off?" Kara sounded incredulous.

Lena was worried she'd messed it up and was about to say no, when she saw the playful glint in Kara's eye.

"Maybe," Lena shrugged, "I don't know what kind of roommate you are yet." Lena said nonchalantly, before smiling at Kara's pout, as she pretended to look offended for all of two seconds, before bounding up the stairs and stopping in front of another door.

Kara was suddenly somehow both sincere and about as excited as a puppy. "Are you ready?"

Lena didn't usually like surprises, but this time she didn't hesitate.

"Yes."

Kara pushed open the door and held it open. Lena stepped out onto the roof.

The night air was pleasantly refreshing and if she looked up, the dark blue open sky was the only thing around them as far as the eye could see.

She took a moment to look at all the stars that were visible, despite the light pollution from the streetlamps dotted around across the campus, but too far below them to be any kind of a distraction when the view was this breath-taking.

"It's beautiful."

Kara had walked to the closest edge and stretched out her arms on the railing, before breathing in deeply, "there isn't a better view on campus." She spoke with absolute certainty, as though there might have been any competition, but Lena was sure it was the best view she'd seen in a long time.

Quietly mimicking Kara, Lena took a deep breath and realised she hadn't felt this relaxed in months. Something about the cool night air and the comfortable stillness it brought, gave her a brief reprieve from carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

After a few moments of silence, Lena couldn't help but wonder aloud, "how did you find this place?"

Kara averted her gaze and adjusted her glasses a little.

"I uh… Just stumbled across it."

Something about Kara's not-quite successfully nonchalant tone made Lena smile, and told her that they were not exactly allowed to be up on the roof. Lena also realised this was another side of Kara that she was getting to see, and she had yet to see a side she didn't like or find intriguing.

"You know, I used to spend a lot of time up on the roof where I grew up." Lena wasn't exactly going to call it home. It was a house, but there was nothing homely about it. Kara watched Lena as she spoke, feeling as though this confession was somehow more intimate than it seemed on the surface. "With my family… If I make a decision they don't approve of or something doesn't go to plan, everything always seems to feel like the end of the world. It's nice to get some perspective."

Kara tilted her head and considered Lena for a moment.

"That sounds kinda tough."

Lena shrugged. There was no point feeling too sorry for herself, she would be heading back there soon enough and she may as well start getting mentally prepared sooner rather than later.

"This has been a nice break really."

"You know, a full timetable of classes and homework is not my idea of a vacation."

Lena laughed.

"I suppose you'd rather go to the beach?"

"Ahh yes, warm sand and the sound of the sea? Sign me up." Kara stretched out her fingers as though she could feel the sand between them.

"That does sound rather nice." Lena admitted.

"It's what the summer is for." Kara bit her lip for a moment. "You could join us, if you want to." She could feel Lena looking at her, but didn't meet her gaze; for some reason, Kara felt a little nervous. "it's a nice place, close to the water and the best ice cream in town."

She smiled at the thought of her favourite triple scoop and turned to Lena, who had been staring at Kara, but now quickly looked away.

"You don't have to or anything, no pressure. It was a stupid idea, I just thought-"

Lena placed a hand on Kara's and in an instant her brain was as empty as her mouth was dry.

"That sounds lovely. I… I think it would be nice."

A grin broke over Kara's face, and a feeling she couldn't name welled in her chest. Kara dismissed it as nerves, though she wasn't sure – or more accurately, ready to admit to herself – why Lena kept making her nervous.

Lena withdrew her hand and a comfortable silence settled over them, until Lena spoke softly.

"Thank you, for bringing me up here."

Kara smiled her usual brilliant smile, "of course." She was about to add 'that's what are friends for', but she turned to look at Lena and the words vanished from her mind at the breath-taking smile Lena was aiming at her.


	4. Chapter 4

Kara was having the worst day she'd had in a long time. Between being kicked off her favourite class because it was oversubscribed, to getting bad feedback on a piece of work she'd tried really hard on, and then having a million other things not going well and building up, she just wanted to be alone. But people she knew seemed to be everywhere she went; even the quieter spots on campus seemed to be buzzing with activity today. She had just escaped a conversation with some guy from one of her classes who was known for being overly friendly with the ladies, when she decided it was enough; there was one place she knew for certain she could be alone and it was already getting dark so there wasn't much chance of being seen up there. Kara swung by the shop and picked up a few of every single sweet treat she fancied, before heading directly up to the roof; she was not in the mood to deal with anyone or anything else.

Or at least, she wasn't, until she barged out onto the roof and found Lena already there, lying on a blanket and staring up at the stars. The door slammed loudly into the wall behind it and Kara winced at the sound; in the same moment Lena jerked up suddenly, seemingly pulled from her thoughts. It was only then that Kara noticed Lena brushing away tears and all thoughts of her own horrid day were pushed aside.

She closed the door gently, before taking a few steps towards Lena. She spoke softly.

"Do you want to be alone?"

There was a long pause and a couple of stifled cries before Lena shook her head slightly.

Kara put down her bag and lowered herself down on the blanket, sitting next to Lena.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

This seemed to somehow be both the exact right and exact wrong thing to say.

Lena drew her knees to her chest and buried her head in her arms.

"It’s been an awful day."

"There seem to be a lot of those going around." Kara wrapped an arm around Lena's shoulders. "So, you're not alone if that's any consolation."

Lena hiccupped and Kara held her tighter, conscious of any indication that Lena did not want to be held like this, but it never came.

They sat like this for what felt simultaneously like the longest time and no time at all.

After a little while, Lena's shoulders stopped shaking and her head peeked out, resting on her arms still wrapped around the top of her knees.

Suddenly, Kara remembered that she'd bought ice cream, which would no doubt be melting rapidly and potentially making one hell of a sticky mess in the rest of her bag.

She didn't realise she'd winced until Lena looked at her questioningly.

Kara gestured to the bag, "I forgot I'd gotten some ice cream and by now…" She pulled away from Lena slightly, just enough to reach into the depths of the bag beside her. She pulled out a very gloopy ice cream, which was thankfully still sealed and not dripping.

Lena's jaw almost dropped at the sight of the contents of Kara's bag.

"You brought quite a feast." She looked at Kara then back at the small mountain of things. "If this is all for you, I'm not here to judge," She followed up quickly. "but, were you planning to throw a party?"

Kara sighed "a pity party maybe."

"You had a bad day too?"

"You could say that." Kara tried to plaster a smile on her face, but found it came naturally when she looked at Lena.

"I had a similar idea."

Kara just now noticed Lena had a backpack beside her, which she had pulled a few bottles of alcohol from.

Kara looked between her snacks and Lena's drinks, before nodding.

"Oh, between us we are all set for the party of the year."

Lena twisted open the closest bottle and offered it to Kara with a smirk playing on her lips.

"Tonight, I'd much prefer a party of two."

Kara accepted the bottle and looked at Lena for a moment. Usually she was the one organising game nights and other fun hangouts with the group, because she liked having everyone together and being in the crowd. But tonight, she kind of wanted Lena all to herself. Kara clinked her bottle with Lena's, and then took a swig.

~~~~

After the first time, it became something of an unspoken Thursday night tradition, for them to spend the evening up on the roof with a selection of treats and drinks. One Thursday, Kara brought a takeaway bag full to the brim with so many pot-stickers Lena was sure they wouldn't get through them all; but somehow, they managed it. Mostly thanks to Kara.

After the food was gone and both were contentedly lying side by side on the blanket and looking up at the stars, Lena realised that she was almost used to this. Used to being content, and free of the stress that she hadn't realised was so heavy until she had put it down. And that was all thanks to Kara too. She turned to look at Kara, to try and articulate this, and how thankful she was to even have Kara in her life, but the words got stuck in her throat. Kara noticed her gaze and turned to meet it.

She looked worried for a moment, "is everything okay?"

Lena smiled, an action which came far more easily these days than it had during the rest of her life. "I'm just," she paused, determined to make sure her voice would stay steady for the rest of the sentence, "happy."

Kara's features relaxed and she gave Lena her usual brilliant beam.

"That sounds like cause for celebration to me." She sat up, and poured them both a drink, before offering one to Lena. She raised her glass. "To being happy."

"To being happy." Despite her efforts, Lena's voice cracked a little, but thankfully Kara pretended not to hear it.

When they lay back down again, they had somehow shifted closer together, and Lena could feel Kara's hand resting right beside hers. It would be so easy and simple to take Kara's hand in her own.

But the thought of somehow scaring Kara away with the action sent a shiver down her spine.

Lena moved her hand to rest on her stomach.

Though Lena had no way of knowing it, Kara missed the brief contact almost instantly.

~~~~~

Since they had been up on the roof last, Lena had been avoiding Kara. It was like a spell had broken once they had returned to their apartment, and alarm bells were going off in Lena's head, reminding her not to get too close. Of course, she'd already failed at that. But it didn't stop her from studying in the library, and coming home late, and basically avoiding Kara at every moment possible.

Kara had noticed, but she trusted Lena. She trusted that if there was a problem between them, Lena would talk to her about it. So Kara supposed that Lena had just suddenly gotten busy with studying or something, and that things would go back to normal between them once whatever was bothering Lena went away.

This continued for a week, right up until Lena didn't show up on the roof for their usual weekly get together. A few hours had since the end of classes and night had crept over the sky. Kara stayed up on the roof, making herself comfortable; they had never officially agreed a time to meet up there anyway. It wasn’t until the sun woke her up the next morning, that she realised she had fallen asleep waiting. And that she was still alone.

Kara was suddenly glad she hadn't done something impulsive last week, like hold Lena's hand, because this felt like rejection, and as much as it hurt right now, it would've stung a whole lot worse if something had happened between them first.

Still bleary eyed and not quite ready to be up, despite the sun's insistence on shining brightly at very early o'clock, Kara grabbed her things and made her way down to the flat she shared with Lena. Despite being confused and more than a little stung by being abandoned without warning, Kara still tried to be as quiet as possible letting herself in. Except she needn't have bothered, because no one was home. All thoughts of going back to sleep flew from Kara's mind as a million reasons why Lena was not home sprung to the forefront of her mind – and none of them were pleasant. She dropped everything into a pile on the floor. Her stomach lurched as she tried to stay calm and think clearly about what to do next.

_A few hours earlier_

Lena had told herself she wasn't going to go. She'd repeated the words like a mantra all day, but avoiding Kara was taking a toll on her. And she wasn't entirely sure why she was avoiding her anymore – the more time they spent apart, the less Lena felt like listening to the part of her mind telling her to run as far away from Kara as possible. That part specifically had finally, officially lost the battle, when Lena found herself sneaking up onto the roof of their building in the super early hours of the morning. Though logically, she questioned whether Kara would still be up on the roof, she knew Kara well enough that she wasn't surprised to find her there, fast asleep.

Lena crouched down and pulled the half of the blanket she usually occupied over Kara, to keep her warm, before quietly settling down beside her on the cold ground.

_Back in the apartment_

Kara was about half a second away from flying out of the window, determined to find Lena with her x-ray vision and super hearing, when the bathroom door opened and they both jumped.

"Lena." The relief was evident in Kara's voice, and without a second thought, Kara closed the distance between them and took her in a tight hug.

Lena returned the embrace, though she was somewhat limited by not wanting her bathrobe to ride up too much. Her hands settled on Kara's back and they stood like this for a moment, before Kara remembered that they were on weird terms, and broke away.

"Sorry. I was uh- kinda worried when you didn't show."

Lena shook her head, "no, I'm sorry. For this past week, I-" She looked at Kara for a moment, and the hopeful look in her eye. Suddenly the part of her that had wanted to run away, was completely silent. "I'm sorry."

Kara gave her a smile, "so we're good?"

Lena sighed, trust Kara to make her being a terrible friend for a week, this easy to get past. She smiled, "yeah, we're good."

"Just for the record? I did come up, though I was a tad later than usual. And it got way too cold, I needed a shower to warm up." She grinned sheepishly for a moment. Kara found it rather endearing. "I don't know how you didn't catch your death." Lena stepped forward and placed a hand on Kara's forehead, but it was unexpectedly warm. Stunned, Lena's other hand went to Kara's cheek, which was just as warm. In fact, there was no trace at all of the brisk early morning air that had barely been better than the freezing air from last night.

While Lena was busy puzzling over this, Kara tried not to stare at Lena, who was standing right in front of her, touching her face. Kara forced herself to look away, so as to avoid being caught staring, when suddenly she noticed that Lena's bathrobe was no longer wrapped all the way around her.

Kara's cheeks flushed and her eyes flew up, focusing intently on the wall behind Lena.

"Um, Lena? Uh- your robe…"

Lena looked down and closed it around herself again with only a slight blush, this time keeping one hand on it. Deciding to change the subject, and still confused as to how Kara was this warm after spending the better part of the night outside, Lena was about to mention it, but Kara had already turned away to the pile she had dropped by her bed earlier. Deciding to tend to it in the morning, she pulled the covers back and snuggled into her bed.

She yawned. "Good night Lena." Today was an excellent day to have a lie in.

Lena smiled back at her and spoke softly, "good night, Kara," before going to change into her own night things.

~~~~

Not for the first time, Kara was grateful that she didn't talk in her sleep; between the dreams she'd had last night and Lena apparently being a flight risk, Kara was certain she would have scared Lena off already if she did.

That was the first of many nights in which Kara dreamed about Lena. Kara knew they were friends and kept reminding herself of as much. Her dreams just didn't seem to agree.

It was okay during the day. She could redirect her daydreams or distract herself by thinking of other things. She'd even written a list of other things to think about. But somehow her thoughts kept wandering one specific way.

After one class in which she hadn't been able to focus at all, Kara decided to drive home for a weekend and visit Alex. She had texted her some of the details, but she missed her sister and needed to talk about this properly.

~~~

"I just, I don't know what to do!"

Alex nodded, listening to her intently with her arm propped up on the back of the couch, holding her head in her hand.

"Okay, so what do you want to do?"

"I can't do anything! She's my friend."

Alex gave her a look.

"Alright, if you don't want to mess that up, then fair enough. But what if she feels the same way?"

Kara scoffed. The thought had occurred to her, but she hadn't dared to entertain it.

"Okay but hear me out, you two are close, right?" Kara nodded. "Then why not just… mention it casually."

"Casually."

"Yeah, you don't have to tell her about everything or even talk about your feelings for her, just," Alex gestured vaguely, "tell her you like ladies. See how she reacts."

"But what if…" Kara trailed off, before seeming to process that for a moment. "Okay, that might make sense."

"I am very wise."

Alex nodded sagely, taking a sip of juice. Kara rolled her eyes and batted her arm. "Ow!"

"Did that actually hurt?"

"…. no."

"How anyone thinks you're a badass, I'll never know."

"It's because I am a badass. I have a motorcycle now and everything."

"Oh, it's finally in from the shop?"

Alex's eyes lit up, "yeah! Do you wanna see it?"

Kara nodded enthusiastically, following Alex out to the garage with only a couple of semi-stern sounding warnings from Eliza as they passed by, reminding them to 'be careful!' and 'you better both come back in one piece.'

~~~~

Kara returned to campus late on Sunday night, feeling almost prepared for the conversation with Lena she'd been planning in her head for the entire drive back to campus, alongside singing along to her driving CD mix.

That feeling of preparedness stayed with her right up until she let herself in to their apartment, and found Lena sitting on her own bed. She looked up from the book nestled on her lap to greet Kara with a smile, and her whole planned conversation evaporated like so much morning dew.

~~~~

A couple of days passed by as Kara worked up the confidence to do something as simple as have a conversation with Lena. Because that's all it is really, just a conversation. With a potentially heart-shattering outcome. Kara tries not to think about that part. Or the fact that it might be a little bit more than a small crush at this point.

They've both chosen to spend the sunny afternoon indoors, to stay on task, and have been studying their respective books in a comfortable, companionable silence for a while. Until Kara breaks it.

"I like women." Kara blurts it out without any kind of tact or preamble.

Her directness is one of the things Lena love- likes. Likes about her. As a friend. Because friends can totally admire their friend's positive qualities. Like their directness and their smile; especially that one smile Kara seemed to save just for her, as though she somehow knows it gives her butterflies. In a friendly way, of course.

Lena decided to play it cool, forever thankful that no one could read her mind. 

"Anything in particular brought this on?"

Kara shrugged, attempting to appear nonchalant. "I just thought you should know."

"Okay." Lena considered this for a moment. "Then I suppose you should know that I like women too."

She didn't miss the flash of an involuntary smile that graced Kara's lips before she schooled her features. Lena filed this interesting information away for later perusal.

"Cool." Kara turns back to her book, staring at the page and not taking in a single word for at least a minute or two as her heart does loop-de-loops and she tries not to blush. Totally just because she'd finally told Lena as per her plan with Alex; it, of course, had nothing to do with the hope sparking in her chest that Lena liked women too.

Nope, that was in no way related to anything.

~~~~

Lena had never had a friend like Kara. She had never known anyone at all, in her entire life, who could hold a candle to Kara Danvers. Not her thoughtfulness, or her playful teasing, or the random acts of kindness that for the first few weeks, Lena was half sure was some kind of elaborate trap. But no trap had been sprung upon her and now Lena had somehow become… settled. Into their daily routines and rooftop tradition and little random things, like how she always swung by this one shop on Tuesdays after her Management lecture, because it was on the far side of campus and it was the only place that sold these ridiculously little, sweet biscuit – or rather, cookie – things that Kara loved. She didn't even think about doing it anymore, her feet just seemed to start walking that way once the class was finished.

It was all of these little things, which made her certain that what she had with Kara was special. It was something she'd never had before, and she was determined not to lose it. Or ruin it by doing something ill-advised, like admitting she had a crush on her best, and only, friend. But that didn't stop her from noticing things.

There was one day Lena came home to find Kara lifting up her desk and looking under it.

"I lost my notebook again," Kara said sheepishly.

Lena nodded mutely, trying and failing not to stare at the muscles in Kara's arms as she held a solid wooden desk up with apparent ease.

She was due for a shower anyway. A very, very cold shower.


	5. Chapter 5

It was a couple of weeks later, on one of their last Thursdays before the end of term, when the topic of romance came up again.

They had gone to the shop on campus together, prior to venturing up to the roof, to stock up on supplies for the evening, when the cashier had been a little more than friendly with Kara. Although she hadn't seemed to even notice his flirting, until he wrote his phone number on her receipt, and handed it to her with a wink.

The walk up to the roof walk was quieter than usual. Once they arrived, Kara spread out the blanket as Lena took things out of their bags.

"So, the cashier," Kara looked at Lena, suddenly pulled from her thoughts by Lena's voice, "he was… brave." The jealousy didn't show through in her voice, and suddenly Lena was grateful for her ability to hide her emotions – as unpredictable as it seems to be these days.

Kara laughed, "yeah, you could say that." She set a book down on one of the corners of the blanket and lay back on it. "I don’t know though. I guess some people like it, but that kinda puts me off?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, this guy. He doesn't know anything about me."

"Except for your current chocolate obsession." Lena looked pointedly at the pile of chocolate bars on the table, and Kara grinned innocently at her, before taking one from the top and unwrapping it.

"My excellent taste in chocolate aside."

Lena takes her bottle of water from her bag and settles down next to Kara, on her usual side of the blanket.

"So, you'd rather get to know someone first?"

Kara shrugged, "it just makes sense to me."

She held Lena's gaze for a long moment, but then Lena looked away.

"Would you date someone you met like that?"

Lena shook her head almost immediately, crinkling her nose. "I can't see the appeal, someone who would just ask a random customer out like that? They must be pulling that stunt a dozen times a day."

Kara gave her a cheeky smile, "and you want to be special."

"It's only fair, I should be treated like the queen I am."

This had the intended effect of making Kara laugh, which pulled a genuine smile from Lena as the jealousy settled in her stomach shrank noticeably.

"Your majesty," Kara pretended to curtsey while lying down, which sent them both into a fit of giggles.

~~~~

"Hey stranger."

Kara spun around to see James, smiling at her with a bicycle helmet under one arm.

"James!" Kara stepped forward without a second thought, to accept his one-armed hug. "It's good to see you."

"You too. And it's nice to meet you." He looked at Lena, "As you may have heard, I'm James."

"Lena," she smiled back at him.

"Oh, right. Introductions, Lena, James is practically a friend of the family." James raised an eyebrow, which Kara ignored. "And James, Lena is my favourite roommate."

Lena laughed, "I'm your only roommate."

Kara grinned, "I stand by it."

There was a shout; someone in a small group across the quad called James' name and he turned, raising a hand back as an indicator of recognition. He turned back to Kara and Lena.

"I'm running a little late for a friendly competition." He gestured to the group behind him.

"Alright, well have fun." Kara stepped forward to hug him goodbye. "It was good to see you!"

"You too." He was about to head off when he turned back. "There's an unofficial campus party on Friday, you should come."

Kara hesitated for a moment before nodding, "maybe? We're kinda swamped at the moment so no promises, but… send me the info anyway?"

"Alright, I will. Catch you later." And with that and a smile, James headed over to join the small group waiting for him.

"That was super random." Kara sent a quick wave after James, before linking arms with Lena and continuing on their way.

"A party?" Lena raises her eyebrow, "could be fun."

"Yeah, maybe." Kara seemed distracted, until a thought occurred to her. "Have you been to any since you got to campus?"

Lena shook her head, "not really."

Kara stopped, overdramatically open-mouthed, staring at Lena as though she'd grown an extra couple of heads. Lena laughed.

"Okay but for real, is that because you don't like parties? Like, do you actually want to go? There is no obligation." Kara paused. "And I don't really know any of James' friends," she added, as an afterthought.

"We would know each other." Lena said, with a suddenly wicked glint in her eye. "And I think it could be fun. It's almost the end of term, it seems like a good time to mix it up a little."

Kara groaned, "don't remind me. Every single one of my professors is determined to melt our brains with all the deadlines until then."

Lena squeezed their linked arms, "we'll make it through. I'm 90% sure."

"Only 90% sure?"

Lena nodded, "there are a lot of variables, and I haven't actually run the statistics yet, or quantified things, so I don't know the exact figure, or the confidence intervals of that assessment…"

Lena trailed off at Kara shaking her head.

"You are such a nerd."

Lena just smiled back. Even when she's teasing her, Kara makes the affection she holds for Lena unquestionably clear.

~~~~

Kara had always been physically affectionate, linking their arms when they walked together, and not being shy about curling up next to her on the couch for a good old-fashioned movie night, but it was only after seeing James and Kara hug without a second thought, that Lena realised that she could do things like hug Kara too, without it coming across the wrong way or scaring her off. So, she tried it one day, when Kara came home and collapsed down on the couch next to her, Lena put an arm around her and held her close for a moment.

Once they had parted Kara looked at her with a curious smile, "what was that for?"

"Nothing in particular." Lena felt her heart rate spike, maybe this hadn't been a good idea. Maybe she should be working on not crushing on her best friend, instead of initiating physical contact, maybe- She caught Kara grinning at her. Maybe she was overthinking it. "I don't know, I don't want to cross any boundaries or anything."

"I'll let you know if any come up."

"Sounds good to me."

Kara kicked off her shoes and twisted, lying down on the sofa with her head in Lena's lap and a cheeky grin on her face.

Lena just laughed, "well sure."

"Hey, I've had a really long day. And you are where my pillow usually is so…"

"You know you have a bed," Lena pointed five feet away, "right there?"

Kara pouted. "But I'm comfy."

Lena shook her head with half a hidden smile, before carefully moving a strand of hair out of Kara's face.

It was only when she met Kara's gaze again a few moments later, that she realised Kara was staring at her intently. Lena raised an eyebrow.

"Have I smudged my lipstick?"

Kara looked away with an embarrassed smile, a slight flush creeping up her neck before she sat up and leaned back against the couch.

"Nope, I think you're all good."

Before Lena could say anything else, Kara had risen and was unpacking today's books from her bag and figuring out which notebooks she would need for tomorrow.

Lena watched her for a moment.

"Why do you still use those?"

Kara turned to look at her, as Lena gestured to the notebooks stacked neatly on the desk.

Kara shrugged, "habit, I guess? And opening a laptop will never be as dramatic as," she flipped open one of her reporter-style notebooks with a flourish, "this."

Lena rolled her eyes at the theatrics. "I suppose you have a point."

Kara thought for a moment, "mostly it's just easier to doodle in these." She flicked through the notebook she was still holding as she spoke.

"May I see?"

Kara shrugged and handed the notebook over to Lena, "sure. They're the distracted works of someone who should probably pay more attention in class."

Lena flicked through the pages slowly, studying each doodle in the margins and dotted around the page borders.

She stopped on one page, where the bottom half of the page was covered in different flowers.

"I like these."

She looked up at Kara, who quickly looked away, focusing on the page Lena was holding out to her. She couldn't let herself get caught staring at Lena _again_ in such a short space of time; though it was far too much of an easy habit to get into.

"Oh yeah, back home we have a lot of wildflowers growing around, and this one time back when I was a kid, I picked a few and gave them to my mom. I figured she would just want to put them around the house or whatever, but she put them pride of place on the table at dinner. And it sort of became an unofficial thing; I still do it when I go home." Kara looked at the collection of doodled flowers wistfully. "But back then, it was one of the few things that made her smile after my dad wasn't around anymore."

"I'm sorry."

Kara shook her head, "it was a long time ago." She smiled but it didn't reach her eyes, which was painfully obvious in comparison to all the brilliant, beaming smiles Lena had witnessed her give.

"But anyway, it still makes her smile. And it makes me happy too."

Lena put her hand on Kara's, to comfort her.

The next time Kara and Lena went up onto the roof for their usual Thursday night plans, Kara noticed that there was suddenly a cluster of tiny plant pots sprouting a small assortment of brightly coloured flowers, tucked into the corner opposite the door. She turned to Lena, and without saying anything, pulled her into a hug. 


	6. Chapter 6

After precisely zero planning and a pinky promise to each other that they wouldn't stay out too late, because they both still had deadlines coming up, Kara and Lena had decided to go to the party after all; just for a little while. That had been over two hours ago.

James dodged into Kara's line of sight as she went to set her now empty cup down on the table.

"Hey, I keep getting caught up with people, but I'm glad you made it."

Kara smiled, "yeah, we couldn't let you have all the fun."

"Lena does look like she's having fun." James gestured.

Kara looked over to Lena, who was surrounded by a group of frat guys and currently attempting to arm wrestle one of them. And she was winning.

"She does." Kara grinned. "We only came for a little bit though, those end of term papers aren't going to write themselves, sadly."

"If only." James offered a goodbye hug, which Kara accepted. "Maybe see you at the next one? It's next week."

The hollering from the frat boys' friends reached a fever pitch as Lena won, and another guy stepped up to the table, with a cocky smile on his face. He looked very sure he was going to crush her. Lena finished her drink with a smile, crushed her plastic cup, and held out her hand, ready to go.

It took Kara a moment to realise she hadn't seen Lena being so competitive before. Or so incredibly confident. Or noticed that she had enough upper body strength to take on wannabe jocks at arm-wrestling. Kara pushed her glasses up and turned back to James, trying not to let herself get distracted by a sight that really shouldn't be so distracting.

"That's soon! Although, I'm not sure, Alex is coming to visit so I guess we'll see if she's up for it."

James held his hands up, "the offer stands, just let me know if you do. And tell her I said hi if I don’t catch you."

Kara nodded, "I will." She turned back to Lena as a couple of the boys started a drumroll on what was apparently, the arm-wrestling table. "I'd better get her home."

There was the sound of an arm slamming onto a table and Lena whooping in victory. The boy looked markedly peeved and like he was about to ask for a rematch, when Kara swooped in.

At the sight of Kara, Lena beamed. "I won. Did you see?"

Kara couldn't help smiling back. "Totally, you are the champion."

"Of the world." Lena half sang.

Kara blinked. Lena must've been more of a light-weight than she'd thought. Or she'd had more to drink than Kara had seen.

"So now it's time to go home."

Without waiting for an answer, Kara wrapped an arm around her waist and discreetly lifted her up, carrying her out of the room and down the driveway before she realised Lena's toes weren't touching the ground and she should probably lower her a little so it looked like she was partly standing on her own two feet.

But Lena hadn't really noticed any of this, nor protested it, aside from pouting briefly, "but I didn't get my prize."

"Oh yeah? What was the prize?" Kara was half paying attention, but mostly focused on getting them both through the throng of people crammed into a living space not designed for half the number of people currently occupying it.

Lena shrugged an 'I don't know' as Kara put her down for a moment outside, half debating flying them home. It was a long walk and Lena probably wouldn't remember any of this tomorrow anyway… But Kara didn't have time to finish her train of thought before she caught sight of a very intoxicated Lena, who had wandered away and was trying to climb the nearest tree.

"Uh, Lena?"

"Yes."

"What are you doing?"

"Climbing a tree."

"I got that much, but um, why?"

"Because I can."

"Alright, but-"

"No, no buts." Lena insisted.

Her foot slipped on the uneven bark of the trunk, but she caught herself, barely.

"Lena," Kara's worry bled through into her tone, but it made little impact on Lena, who had successfully made it up to stand on one of the lower branches and was not looking at all steady on her perch. "Lena, please."

"I can do it." It was no use, she was determined and already looking up at the next branch. "All the way up, to the top." Lena was humming now too.

Kara took half a second to look around, to make sure no one was watching as she prepared to fly up to Lena's side, to be closer to her and keep her steady if it all went wrong. But before she could, Lena had lost her balance and fallen. With her heart in her throat, Kara just managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

Lena blinked up at Kara, and all thoughts of tree-climbing evaporated.

Kara was about to ask if she was okay, but Lena was gazing at her with an unreadable look on her face that made Kara hesitate. For just a moment, they simply looked at each other; until Kara broke the silence by speaking softly.

"Are you alright?"

Lena simply nodded, breaking their gaze.

"Thank you, for catching me."

"Always." Kara smiled, "and someone had to do it."

Lena shoved her gently, before dislodging herself from Kara's grip and attempting to stand. But as soon as she put any weight on her ankle, pain shot through it like she was attempting to walk on absurdly long needles.

Lena winced, instantly raising her foot off the ground. Kara caught her elbow, steadying her.

"How-"

"I must've twisted it, getting into the tree."

Kara gave her a look, but said nothing. Lena pretended she didn't notice.

"Maybe we can call a cab? I don't fancy hopping home," she yawned, "and I'm sleepy." Lena stretched her arms out in front of her like a cat.

"I think we'll be okay. May I?" Kara gestured as though she was going to pick her up.

Lena shrugged, thinking this would probably be amusing. "Okay."

She picked Lena up as easily as though she was made of air, and carried her bridal style.

Lena looked at her, slightly incredulous, "okay, so I know you're strong," she ran her fingertips over one of Kara's biceps, "but do you really think we can make it all the way home, like this?"

Kara shrugged, already walking towards home, "yeah. I don't think it'll be a problem."

"Alright, Superma- No… Superwoman."

Suppressing an ear-splitting grin at those words took a lot more effort than carrying Lena home did. 

Lena rested her head in the crook of Kara's neck and allowed herself to doze lightly, trying very hard to remain semi-conscious in case Kara's arms got tired; but Kara didn't waver for a moment.

When they finally got home, one very long walk later, Kara set Lena down gently on her bed, but before she could right herself, Lena had grabbed the front of her shirt.

She pulled her down again, and wrapped her arms around Kara in a tight hug, which Kara returned in an instant.

"I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You won't have to find out."

Lena pushed her away and turned to face the wall, curling up on top of the covers. For all that they had been through, she still didn't want Kara to see her cry. Not again.

Kara figured as much and didn't push it, but instead took the blanket from her own bed and spread it over Lena before turning in herself. Knowing Lena, she was exactly stubborn enough to allow herself to freeze just because she refused to move from her current curled up position and get under the covers.


	7. Chapter 7

Kara realised halfway from the dining hall to the library that she’d forgotten to bring her essay for her next class. She dashed home, faster than she probably should have whilst pretending to be human, to collect it. But as soon as Kara unlocked the door, she could see that a letter had been slid under it. It was addressed very neatly to ‘Miss Luthor’. If she’d paid more attention to it, Kara would have thought it was strange for such a neatly written letter to have no postmark, but she didn’t. She placed the letter on the table by Lena’s bed and forgot all about it in her rush to be on time. Or at least, as little late as possible.

It was a few hours before Lena arrived back home, though she saw the letter on her bedside table as soon as she did. She opened it, to find it was from the Dean’s secretary, informing her that her transfer had been formally organised and that the only thing she needed to do to finalise everything was to sign the transfer contract, at the Dean’s office tomorrow morning.

It was difficult to believe that such a short time ago she had been desperate to leave this place, and now leaving was the furthest thing from her mind. She glanced over to Kara’s side of their dorm and, for a moment, didn’t realise she was smiling. It would be an awkward conversation for sure, telling the Dean that actually she was good here and wanted to stay, but she couldn’t imagine leaving anymore. She thought of Kara, and how they had first met in the music practice room at the start of term and couldn't help smiling at the thought as she tucked the letter away in the back of her admin folder. It had really been a while since this place had started to feel like home.


	8. Chapter 8

Lena was sitting at the desk when Kara got home, with a collage of textbooks open around her.

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Almost done…" Lena said distractedly. Kara shrugged her jacket off and hung it up, before wandering over to see what Lena was working on.

Lena wrote two sentences before looking up to cite a reference, and realising Kara was hovering right over her shoulder, pulling a funny face.

Lena started and Kara grinned. "Sorry, I was just curious. I didn't know you were so jumpy."

Lena shook her head, finished her citation and turned the page of the book to her left as Kara went to grab a glass and some juice from their mini fridge.

"I'm just immersed in this, one more paragraph and it's over." The tone of relief may have appeared overly dramatic, but Kara knew that this one particular project had been eating at her for a while.

"That calls for celebration."

"A hundred percent."

Kara tiptoed silently back to hover over Lena's other shoulder and tried not to giggle, but spoke quietly so as not startle her too badly, "so what do you think we should do?" Kara was already smiling, only this time, Lena didn't start. She put her pen down and turned in her seat as her eyes flicked to meet Kara's.

"Something special."

Kara swallowed hard at the sudden intensity of her gaze.

Lena rose from the chair to stand in front of Kara as she straightened up.

"Yeah, something special. That sounds…" she swallowed again, "good."

Lena smirked, and stepped closer to her, making as though she was going to brush past Kara, but she didn't. She simply stood there, as though she was waiting for something to happen.

"Good."

It was originally intended to be teasing, in the same light-hearted way Kara hovering over her shoulder was, but as she stood there watching Kara react a little more dramatically than she had expected, Lena couldn't help but remember Kara's momentary little smile when she had told her that she liked women too. Lena tilted her head and looked at Kara; perhaps there had been more to that than she had first thought. 

For a moment, Kara held Lena's gaze, before her eyes strayed to where Lena was biting her own lip. Kara instantly redirected her gaze back to Lena's eyes, only to find Lena had caught her looking. Before Kara could even blush, Lena leaned ever so slightly closer to Kara. Without a first or second thought, Kara closed the distance between them, kissing Lena until she moaned.

Kara broke away and took a breath; the sound seemed to bring her mind back from all the fireworks and crashing into some kind of reality.

"We shouldn't." Her voice was unsteady as she tried to ignore the heat flooding through her and focus her thoughts on anything that wasn't Lena or their kiss. She knew there were reasons for them not to do this, but for the life of her she could not remember what they were. They seemed very small and faint and far away, whilst Lena was soft and strong and occupying every crevice of her mind.

Lena had stopped at her words and held herself poised where she was, just the tiniest distance from Kara's lips.

"We can stop, if you want to." Lena's voice was low, and she was a little out of breath.

Kara didn't have the words in her mind to form a sentence about valuing their friendship or not wanting things to change. All she could think about was Lena's proximity and everything that came with it; the familiar light scent of her perfume, the gentle resting touch of her hand on Kara's neck, and the warmth of her breath from soft lips not even an inch away.

Her heartbeat thrummed in her ears and suddenly nothing else seemed to matter. Lena was right there, in front of her, and Kara could feel how much she wanted to kiss her, and by Rao did Kara want to kiss her too; so, she did.

Before Lena could pull back, Kara erased the distance between them again and met Lena's lips with her own. Her hands on Lena's hips, she pulled them flush against each other, forgetting her strength for a moment until Lena broke their kiss and looked at her with dark eyes. Kara was about to apologise, when Lena pulled Kara's tighter arms around her, and kissed her again and again.

The next time they broke for air, Lena began kissing her way along Kara's neck, finding one really sensitive spot which made Kara shudder. A moment later, Kara had picked her up, wrapped Lena's legs around her waist and carried her to the nearest bed. Lena barely registered she was lying down before Kara was on top of her, and suddenly those thoughts were not as important as the thought of getting Kara out of her button-up. 


	9. Chapter 9

Lena was dozing, woken a little while ago by the sliver of sunlight which peeked through the gap between the curtains, but content to continue enjoying the warmth and Kara still asleep beside her.

Remembering she had to get up for a meeting with the Dean at some point this morning, Lena cracked one eye open and tried to focus on the clock on the wall. She had plenty of time. Snuggling a little further into the duvet, she sighed contentedly. In her sleep, Kara turned and nestled a little closer into Lena’s side.

Lena just about managed to set an alarm without waking her up, before going back to sleep herself.

_Four hours later_

Lena was sitting, dressed more smartly than she usually would for a typical day at university, waiting outside the Dean’s office.

Kara had still been sleeping when she left; how she could sleep so much Lena did not know, but having been up for a while herself, she’d found she was quite content to lie beside her as she did.

A few moments later, the Dean called Lena into her office.

After exchanging the usual pleasantries, she gestured towards a messy pile of papers on her desk.

“I have good news for you, your transfer to Ireland has been officially arranged. I would typically request a student to stay until the official end of semester, but as I believe your mandatory classes have all wrapped up bar any coursework, you’re free to leave when you wish.”

She thought carefully for a moment about how best to tell her thanks, but no thanks.

“I truly appreciate all that you’ve done to arrange the transfer, but I would like to stay.”

The Dean looked at her thoughtfully for a moment.

“Did something change your mind?”

“Yes.”

Lena smiled pleasantly, but made it clear she was not going to elaborate. 

“Very well. I will need these papers to be signed or shredded by the end of the day today, so if you change your mind, 5 o’clock is the cut off.”

Lena nodded, “thank you.” She rose and with a brief goodbye, left her office.

Now she was free to go back home and spend the rest of the day with Kara. Home. It wasn't the first time she had called their dorm room that. But now, this morning, barely able to keep the smile off her face, she finally felt like it was a home in a way she didn't know a place could be.

~~~~

Lena had debated going straight back to their dorm, but she figured breakfast would be a welcome surprise. The fact that it also served the purpose of explaining why Lena had gone out without her having to explain that she had almost transferred out of the university, was just a nice bonus. So, she took a detour past the campus café and picked up a few pastries, and ordered a coffee for her and a hot chocolate for Kara. As the barista asked her questions about her order and she answered them without hesitation, Lena revelled for a moment in how intimate it was that she already knew Kara’s order by heart, without even thinking about it.

She was walking back home when a loud squeal across the quad caught her attention. It was Kara, who was running towards a woman who had just climbed off a motorcycle. Kara hugged her, with a massive grin on her face, then picked her up and spun her around.

The other woman laughed, “it’s good to see you too.”

Kara put her down, “I thought you weren’t coming in until tomorrow?”

Lena didn’t plan to eavesdrop, but she also had no intention of going into a situation without knowing more of the variables. Like how close Kara and this other woman were exactly. She quelled the jealousy in her stomach, trying to have a faith in Kara that had not been deserved by many people in her life – although in most cases, she hadn't found that out until it was much too late.

“I figured I’d get in a little early and surprise you.”

“You succeeded! And there’s so much I want to catch you up on, but first- “

Before Kara could say anything else, a smartly-dressed James approached them both; Kara saw him first.

“James!”

He smiled at them both, “it’s good to see you again, Alex.”

They hugged briefly.

“You too, it’s been a while. Have you been looking out for my favourite person?”

Lena’s heart caught in her throat.

"I thought I was your favourite?" James pretended to be hurt before Alex cuffed him and he turned to Kara. “I try to, but we both know she doesn’t need it.”

Kara grinned and blushed. “You guys.”

After a brief catch-up, James said his goodbyes and headed off. Then, Kara put her arm around Alex’s back and gestured towards their apartment with a beaming smile. It looked an awful lot like the beaming smile Lena had thought, for some silly reason, was reserved just for her. But apparently not.

"Come on, first I want to show you the roof."

She said something else too, but Lena didn't hear it as they started walking away.

A weight settled on her chest like the world's most well-fed cat, only without the accompanying warmth. It made sense suddenly; like the clear, sharp sensation of cold water running down her back, Lena realised why Kara had been holding back all those times. It wasn't to preserve their friendship like she had thought - like Lena had been trying to do herself, Kara was doing it was because she already had a girlfriend. It must’ve been a long-term relationship too, for her to be so familiar with James, and for them to be so openly affectionate. But that hadn't stopped Kara kissing her, or anything else they'd done last night. She'd said they shouldn't, but suddenly Lena wasn't sure why exactly that was. These thoughts were racing through Lena’s mind, as though understanding exactly what was going on would make it hurt less.

The fact that she knew Kara, and knew she wasn’t the type to cheat, was not at the forefront of her mind. Neither was stopping to ask for some kind of explanation. Lena was sure she knew exactly was what going on and saw no point in humiliating herself further.

As far as Kara knew she’d left in the morning, and she could keep it looking that way. She turned away, angrily swiping away the tears blurring her vision. Lena could clear out her things while Kara was out, and never have to see her again.

This was not how she had planned to say goodbye. In fact, if she could help it, she hadn't been planning to say goodbye at all.

Lena sank onto the closest bench and tried to convince herself not to go back into the room she had called home for the past few months and be humiliated as Kara introduced Lena to her girlfriend. It wasn't difficult.

She was still sitting there a little while later, when Kara and the woman reappeared. They turned left down the path and suddenly Lena was up, heading back to a room that would no longer be hers by the end of the day. She packed up her belongings quickly, not knowing when they would be back and incredibly motivated to avoid running into them. With the last box outside the room, she flicked off the light and started to carry her things downstairs, to hail a taxi.

After a quick detour via the Dean's office to sign the transfer papers, she got back into the cab with all her belongings and left the campus behind without looking back. She would send in her coursework by courier and never have to set foot there again.

When Kara got home, she noticed instantly that Lena's things were missing. Lena was always fairly neat and tidy, and she hadn't exactly brought a bunch of comfort items with her like Kara had, but she still felt their absence. She was about to text Lena about it, when she thought better of it. Lena had probably just sent her things back to her family ahead of the winter break – she was exactly organised enough to have done all that already. Maybe it was better this way anyway; she was a little nervous for Alex and Lena to meet, so maybe it would be better if it wasn't right away, she really wanted them to get along. Kara smiled at the thought and turned her attention back to packing up a box of things that she wanted to take home with her for the holidays, which couldn't come soon enough.

Although it had been weird that she hadn't heard from Lena since that one night, Kara didn't think too much of it for the first few days. And she didn't want to be clingy, maybe Lena just needed some space. She had tried to call a few times – okay, more than a few times – and had left messages, but it wasn't until she tried to call her a few days into the holidays, and got told that Lena's voicemail was full, that Kara began to worry. She was thinking about filing a missing person's report or something, when Alex took Kara's phone from her and told her to try relaxing a little, and actually enjoying the holidays she'd been so looking forward to. Kara reluctantly agreed that she may have been over-reacting, when Alex told her that Lena probably just used a different phone number when she was in Ireland – it wouldn't make sense to keep using an American number there. And the holidays were time to be with family anyway; they didn't get to see each other much during term time. Besides, it was perfectly possible Lena was just jet-lagged and busy and had lost track of time. Even though she hadn't said goodbye or even left a note, which wasn't like Lena and it nagged at her. After the second week of no contact, Kara was a little bit angry at Lena's disappearing act, and by the third week she just had a lot of questions. Questions she was determined to get answers to.

When the holidays wound down and with the new semester fast approaching, Kara packed up her things, had one last home-cooked meal with her family, and then drove back up to university. She was feeling a little sleepy after the drive and the good food had lulled her into a state of quiet contentment, which promptly vanished as soon as she got outside of her dorm and saw the strip of light under the door. _Lena was back already_. Any trace of sleepiness was gone in an instant, as was any lingering anger towards Lena; her heart rose in her chest as she quickly fumbled for her keys and unlocked the door, bursting in so enthusiastically she completely forgot about her duffel bag still sitting in the hallway.

The person sitting in the room turned to look at Kara and her dramatic entrance, but it wasn't Lena.

"Hi, I'm Kelly! I just transferred here." The woman looking at her spoke with a smile, but Kara simply stared back at her. "I'm your new roommate, didn't they tell you?"

That was the moment that Kara realised Lena wasn't coming back. 


	10. Chapter 10

It was only a month into term at her new uni and Lena was already bored out of her mind; this particular professor kept droning on and on about concepts she knew inside out. So much for finding a new challenge.

She was sat at the back of the classroom to avoid answering his mundane questions, not that anyone was likely to bother her anyway – the Luthor reputation far preceded her and it had taken approximately two hours for word to spread around campus. She could tell from how much everyone had started going out of their way to get out of hers.

As soon as the professor dismissed the class, she picked up her bag and left before she could be approached by the usual jackasses trying to charm their way into her good graces. She was all too familiar with this routine. Sure enough, the odd arrogant fool would try again, but soon they would give up as well. She hadn't had this much practice in perfecting her withering glare since- her train of thought came to an abrupt halt; since before she'd met Kara. She tried to dismiss the thought, but it clung to the corner of her mind for the rest of the day and well into the night, as if the thought of Kara ever left her mind. She wasn't sleeping too well these days.

It was about 4am on a cold February morning, when Lena finally accepted that Kara was just going to live in her thoughts forever. For the first time since she'd left America, Lena dug out the phone she'd used in the US from the back of her desk drawer. Her finger hovered over the power button. She took a breath; this was, obviously, a terrible idea. But, she thought, it couldn't exactly hurt her any more than she was already hurting anyway. Even though she was over it – a lie she told herself so often that the words had become meaningless; though the notion was easier to entertain during the day, when there were other things to distract her. She turned the phone on.

As soon as the loading screen vanished, it started vibrating and the number of missed call and voicemail notifications kept going up until one last message popped up, telling her that her inbox was full. She was about to tap on the icon, when another notification came up from Instagram, 'Kara Danvers just posted a photo.' With all the good judgement a sleep-deprived person has in the very early hours of the morning, Lena tapped on the notification.

She'd come this far, she may as well torture herself a little more.

It was a picture of Kara and the woman Lena had seen her with that last day on campus, the day she'd signed her transfer papers. Both of them were beaming, with their arms around each other in one picture, and pulling silly faces in the second.

Lena halfway torn between turning the phone off again, deciding that this had been a mistake after all – she did not need to test how much worse she could feel, and liking the picture, to passive aggressively let Kara know that Lena knew she was a cheater- but then the caption caught her attention.

'Galentines <3.'

Lena stopped, and read the caption again. Galentines?

Her eyes flicked to the top of the screen and she pulled down the menu to see the date. It was February 15th. That meant yesterday – although she hadn't gone to sleep yet, had been valentine's day. And Kara had spent it with-

Lena took half a moment to rub her eyes and sit up straight, before clicking to see if the picture was tagged. It was, and the face belonged to the username AlexDanvers1. Danvers. The same surname as Kara. Quite suddenly, Lena became aware of her pulse, which felt like it had jump-started. She tapped on the username and when it loaded the new page, one specific picture caught her attention. Kara and Alex were standing either side of an older woman, all wearing matching jumpers. Alex hadn't added a caption, just one tag, #family.

If there had been any lingering doubt, this was enough proof for Lena to admit that she had been monumentally, tragically wrong about who exactly Alex was to Kara.

She put the phone down, held her head in her hands and whispered, 'fuck'.

~~~~

Lena had replayed the moment in her mind when she had seen Kara run up and greet Alex outside their building a thousand times since she'd left. And only half of those times had been in the early hours of that very morning. She couldn't imagine having a family that affectionate. But then, before she'd met Kara, she hadn't imagined that kind of affection existing.

Lena had fallen into a fitful sleep for about an hour, before her alarm roused her and she had to start getting ready for class. For some reason, as she left, she took both phones with her. She was on her way to class but when she got there, she just kept walking, straight past the building and to the nearest coffee shop. There was no point in even pretending to go to that class, she never learnt anything in it anyway.

She waited in line, staring at the chalkboard menu above the counter but not really paying attention, her thoughts were far, far away. A few thousand miles away with the first person in her life that she regretted not trusting enough to stick around and wait for confirmation; it didn't feel any better than trusting and being betrayed. It was at that moment, the realisation dawned on her sleep-deprived mind, that she had in fact, betrayed Kara. What she had thought was a reaction to being betrayed by Kara, was actually her letting Kara down. Her stomach constricted at the thought. The only thought ringing through her mind, was w _hat had she done._

Before she had consciously made up her mind, she left the coffee shop, walking towards the nearest main road to campus. Within a minute she saw a taxi, hailed it, and was on her way to the airport.


	11. Chapter 11

Kara was spending her weekend moping, at home instead of at uni for a bit of a change of pace. 

Alex stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame with her arms crossed. "Stop moping."

"I'm not moping!" Kara said indignantly, before pouting and crossing her own arms. "Okay, maybe I am a little." She sighed, "it's just… hard."

Alex came to sit beside Kara. "I know it sucks to lose at Uno-"

"Wha- hey!" Kara grabbed the nearest pillow and hit Alex with it half-heartedly.

"But," Alex took the hit and kept talking as though the interruption had never happened, "and I know you know this, sometimes you've gotta let things go."

"Yeah, I know. I just… I don't know, I had this idea of what Valentine's day would be like with Lena and…" She trailed off.

"Nice to know I'm appreciated." Alex said with a cheeky smile.

Kara rolled her eyes, "you know that's not what I meant, I love our Galentines tradition!"

Alex laughed, "it's a tradition after two years?"

"Well, duh."

Alex studied Kara for a moment, "are you playing up the moping, so I'll go and get you doughnuts again?"

"No! …mostly no. And I'm not moping."

"Okay, you're not moping. So, if I offer to go and get you some of the pink frosted ones with sprinkles-"

"You would be the best sister ever." Kara spoke so sincerely, it made Alex chuckle.

"Okay fine, just this once! I'm not a doughnut delivery person."

"Oh, that would be an amazing job."

"Pretty sure they wouldn't let you eat them on the way."

"But I can bring extra to eat on the way."

Alex shook her head and got up, heading to the corridor to pick up her helmet.

After a brief discussion in which Alex asked her mum if she wanted anything from the store and they ended up agreeing to go together, Alex put the helmet back and stuck her head around the door into the living room.

"Mum's coming too, wanna join the family outing?"

Kara smiled but shook her head, "Golden Girls is starting soon."

Shortly after they left, she had only just settled in with a new tub of Benjamin and Jerrold's, when the doorbell rang. She debated leaving it, but if it was a parcel for the neighbours or something… she didn't want her sweet elderly neighbour to have to go through the hassle of getting it redelivered, the old dear often missed the sound of the doorbell. The doorbell rang again, quite insistently, and she jogged over to open the door, before hesitating. She looked through the door with her x-ray vision, and saw that it was in fact, a pizza delivery guy – or so she assumed, from the box he was holding.

She swung open the door.

"You ordered a pepperoni?"

"Nope, which address are you looking for?"

"21…" The pizza guy looked at their door number, which read 12, "ah, sorry. I have dyscalculia, this happens all the time."

"No worries, 21's just down that road." Kara gestured. "If you see a red barn, you've gone too far."

As he said his thanks and turned to leave, Kara shut the door. But the doorbell rang again not two minutes later. Putting her ice cream down again, she jogged back to the door, phone in hand, prepared to get out some kind of map for the pizza delivery guy.

She swung open the door with a smile.

"Did you-"

The rest of the sentence stuck in her throat as her smile slipped away, to be replaced with a look of shock so severe it was almost comical.

There was a beat of total silence.

"I'm sorry."

Those particular words weren't what Lena had planned to open with, but they fell from her lips anyway, unbidden and somehow feeling like it was nowhere near enough, even though it made her feel more vulnerable than she was anywhere close to comfortable with.

Kara had seen Lena in a lot of different ways. She had seen her look angry when that skater had run into Kara, seen her happy, tipsy, and lost in her thoughts, more times than she could count. Kara had also seen her sad, homesick, annoyed with her professors, and the way she held herself when she was concentrating on writing a paper or practising a presentation. Kara was familiar with Lena in a way no one else was – not that she knew it, but she had never seen Lena the way she was looking at Kara right now.

"Can I explain?"

Kara stood there for a long moment, half blocking the doorway

"Would you do it again?" Her tone was clear and sharp.

"No, I wouldn't." Lena didn't hesitate, she didn't need to think about it. Making the same mistake twice was not something she did often.

"And I'm supposed to trust that now?" Lena took a sharp intake of breath. "You left without so much as a goodbye."

"I know-"

"What, was your life in danger? Phone destroyed? You got kidnapped or were stuck in a coma?"

"No."

Kara gave a mirthless laugh, "so you are capable of telling the truth."

Lena looked at Kara, "will you let me explain?"

Kara considered her for a moment.

"If I had done what you did, would you let me explain?"

Lena's heart and gaze dropped. She wouldn't have listened to Kara in a million years. Heck, Kara hadn't even done anything wrong and she'd been prepared to cut her out of her life without so much as a farewell.

Lena had been preoccupied the entire flight to the US by how this conversation would go, and as much as she wouldn't admit openly it to herself, she had been hopeful. But that flicker of hope was swiftly being starved of oxygen.

"I think we both know the answer to that; I'll just go." It took every part of her that wasn't shattering into a thousand fragments to keep her voice level and stay her emotions. "But for what it's worth, I truly am sorry."

It was not the first time Kara had wished she hadn't had super-hearing, and a lot of the time it was incredibly useful, but right now all she could hear was the tell-tale quiver in Lena's voice, and the honesty in her words.

Kara spoke as Lena was halfway up the drive, "I believe you."

Lena turned back, to see Kara grabbing a set of keys from the hooks in the hallway and slipping them into her pocket, along with her phone. She shut the door and locked it, before coming to stand a few feet from Lena.

Kara crossed her arms and started walking slowly out towards the nearest field, turning back to Lena for just long enough to catch her eye.

"I'm listening." 


	12. Chapter 12

As they wandered around the field, Lena told her side of the story with stilted words that felt more awkward than anything else; her reasons sounded a lot sillier out loud than they had in her head, when the things were actually happening. True to her word, Kara listened without interruptions until Lena had finished.

This also gave Kara's anger time to simmer; as much as she was hurt – healing, but still hurt, she couldn't quite imagine how someone could cut and run like Lena had done. Kara felt like she had lost too much to ever just leave someone behind like that; avoiding getting attached because you might get hurt seemed about as useful as avoiding breathing because you knew one day you would die.

She took a moment to digest everything Lena had told her.

"I hear what you're saying. And I don't understand it, but I guess I don't need to." Kara shrugged. "I believed you when you said you wouldn't do it again, and I think everyone deserves a second chance."

Lena stopped suddenly and looked at Kara. "Does this mean-" Lena cut herself off, not wanting to ask for anything in case it was too much and Kara changed her mind.

"It means we can start over," she held her hand out jokingly, "hi, I'm Kara."

Lena gave her a look, but shook her hand anyway; Kara was such a dork. "Hi Kara, I'm Lena." She paused, "although if we're truly starting again, I'd like to do it right this time."

Kara waited for more details on what that meant exactly, slightly confused as Lena scanned the ground for something. After a moment, when it became clear these details were not forthcoming, Kara prompted, "do what right this time?"

It was at that moment Lena found what she was looking for, a small patch of flowers. Kara looked at her picking daisies. "We could go to the next field over if you want to pick flowers…" Lena ignored her, and held her handful of freshly picked daisies carefully as she started weaving them into a chain.

"This time, I'm going to try to be crystal clear about what I want," Lena took a breath, for all her bravado on the surface this was difficult even just to say, "and how I feel, about you."

"Oh."

"I'm going to do better; I've decided that much. And this is the first step. May I?" She gestured to Kara's hand.

She assented, and Lena tied the chain into a bracelet around Kara's wrist.

"Now I know it's not the typical bunch of flowers you bring on a first date," Kara choked, "relax, it was a joke. But as I was saying, I know it's not such a typical thing, but I'm hoping the spontaneous, maybe even romantic, gesture counts for something."

Kara looked between her new daisy chain bracelet and Lena.

"Uh-"

Lena looked at the blush steadily taking over Kara's cheeks. "You alright there?"

"Yeah, no, yeah I'm good." Kara suddenly couldn't tear her gaze away from the loosely joined flowers encircling her wrist. "Thank you, for the bracelet."

"Anytime. So tell me, do you get this flustered when anyone jokes about dating or am I special?"

Kara rolled her eyes, then looked at Lena. "Oh, you're definitely one of a kind."

Lena gave her a devilish grin, "I try."

For a moment, Kara just looked at Lena, who held her gaze right up until Kara's eyes dropped to her lips, before falling to the floor.

Lena stepped closer to Kara, then leaned in ever so slowly, giving her time to back away if she wanted to, before kissing her softly on the cheek. If Lena hadn't been so focused on keeping her cool and her thundering heart in her chest, she would have noticed Kara lean into it a little. But Lena stepped back too soon.

Before she could move away any further, Kara surged forward and cupped Lena's face, pulling her into the kind of kiss usually reserved for lovers who knew they would never see each other again.

For the second time in 24 hours, Lena could feel the threat of tears in her eyes, though this time it was because Kara still felt like home.

Lena's hands rested gently on Kara's waist, as Kara's tangled in her hair, and she allowed herself to be pulled into kiss after kiss, until Kara bit her lip and elicited a moan. As though it were some kind of trigger, Kara's hands were suddenly at Lena's waist, and sliding under her shirt and trailing teasingly softly across her bare skin. Lena gasped at the contact, breaking away from Kara's lips for a moment, but Kara didn't stop, instead pressing kisses down her jaw and along her neck, until she reached a spot she knew from experience was sensitive. But before she could finish giving Lena a hickey, she was interrupted.

"Kara-" Lena tried to focus; it was taking all of her effort not to give in, "Kara, wait-"

Kara took a step back as though burned and Lena missed her warmth immediately. Her hands dropped to her sides.

"I-" Kara started, but she couldn't seem to find the right words to say.

"Hey, no it's okay. I- I want that too," she tried not to sound as breathless as she felt. "But I'd rather not do something rushed now and ruin everything because it was too much too soon." Kara nodded, running a hand through her hair. "And I'm not expecting anything, okay?"

"Okay, and I'm not either."

Lena grinned and raised an eyebrow as she pulled her shirt back down, where Kara had pushed it up. "You could've fooled me."

A blush rose on Kara's cheeks again as she tried to look as innocent as possible.

"So, uh- daisy jewellery. Did you pick that up at business school or…?"

Lena rolled her eyes, but allowed Kara to see a little of her smile. "Very funny. It was from a friend growing up, actually."

"Aw, that's kinda sweet. Also, I still can't believe you thought I would- wait, but we weren't even dating?!"

"You think we weren't going that way? I don't know about you, but I don't sleep with every pretty lady that crosses my path."

Kara grinned and nudged Lena with her elbow, "you think I'm pretty."

"You're never going to miss an opportunity to reference Miss Congeniality, are you?"

"Nope. It deserves the recognition."

Lena sighed, "fair enough."

"Hey, you said you liked it when we watched it!"

"I did, the first few times…"

Kara folded her arms, "how much betrayal can you fit into one day."

Lena tried to stifle her laugh, but it didn't work, and soon enough they were both giggling uncontrollably as they tried to stop laughing, accidentally setting each other off again. Eventually the laughter died down.

"I missed you."

Kara said it so easily, so carelessly and unguarded it made Lena's heart ache.

"I missed you too."

"Anyway, we were talking about… what were we talking about?"

"You being pretty and sleeping with every-"

Kara cut her off, "I dare you to finish that sentence." The mischievous look in her eye was at odds with the sternness in her tone. Lena paused, momentarily distracted by Kara flexing her arm muscles a little.

"Sleeping with me."

"Yeah, I think we were headed there. But I guess we’ll never know," Kara bumped Lena with her elbow and smiled cheekily, "because for someone so smart, you can be really clueless."

"Hey! I figured it out in the end."

"Two months later." Kara gave her a sideways grin.

Lena rolled her eyes, "I've changed my mind, I'm going back to Ireland."

"You weren't planning to already?"

Lena shrugged, "I thought I'd stick around for a while, maybe see some of the sights."

Kara snorted. "Oh yeah, there's plenty of sights in Midvale. So many famous things to see and exciting things to do… In fact," Kara turned around and pointed into a stable a little way off, "that's one of them. His name is Horsey."

Lena grinned, "you named a horse, Horsey?"

"Well yeah, what else was I going to name him." Lena laughed, and Kara's heart lifted at the sound. She took a breath; it was far too easy to love Lena in little moments like these. "Do you wanna meet him?"

"I would be honoured."

As they made their way over to the stables, their hands brushed together. Neither withdrew, and as they walked it happened again. By the time they reached Horsey, their fingers were loosely entwined.

Maybe they wouldn't be starting too close to the beginning, after all. 


End file.
